As firefighters struggle to contain a wildfire started by an illegal campfire, the ensuing destruction of homes, forest lands and the temporary displacement of thousands of foothill residents may have left a wider and, some say, more dangerous impact.

Leftover from the Colby Fire, which has now blackened 1,863 acres, destroyed five homes and is still only 30 percent contained, is a large plume of bad air. This noxious stew — in the form of tiny soot particles that pass through the body’s defenses and lodge deep in the lungs — traveled dozens of miles to the coast, Long Beach, even parts of Orange and Riverside counties, said air quality experts.

For the second day in a row, the South Coast Air Quality Management District issued a smoke advisory for the four-county air basin Friday due to accumulation of soot and pollution particles from the wildfire that takes its name from where it started, the Colby Trail in the Angeles National Forest a few miles north of Azusa.

Glendora police arrested three suspects who said they tossed paper onto their campfire, causing it to get out of hand. Steven Aguirre, 21, Clifford Henry, 22, and Jonathan Jerrell, 23 are being held on suspicion of unlawfully causing a fire of a structure or forest land. The trio are facing federal charges.

The white smoke from the brush fire — captured in a surreal photograph by a satellite from space — billowed hundreds of feet in the air Thursday and was transported by the reverse air-flow of a Santa Ana wind condition to the coast, leaving the San Gabriel Valley and San Fernando Valley crystal clear.

On Friday, the bad air, like inland day-trippers to the beach, turned around and came back, recirculating over most of the L.A. air basin.

“It went off the coast and then came back in on the sea breeze today. We saw regional levels of particulates go up,” said Joe Cassmassi, a meteorologist with the air district who forecasts pollution patterns.

Advertisement

Hot spots along Highway 39 put down by firefighters and water- and retardant-dropping helicopters contributed to the smoke that mixed with smog and hung like a dirty blanket over most of the Southland.

The foul air may have led to increased hospital visits from people complaining of shortness of breath, sore throats and stinging eyes, said Dr. James E. Baker, an emergency physician from Kaiser Hospital in Baldwin Park.

“I don’t have any hard statistics but certainly we’ve seen a mild to moderate increase in patient cases. People that are coughing or have a bit of asthma, what is called a reactive airway response to the smoke, ash and soot in the air,” Baker said.

Dr. Gurjeet Kalkat, a lung specialist at Foothill Presbyterian Hospital in Glendora, said there was no increase seen locally, though some patients at Foothill briefly experienced irritation from the smoke.

“What helped was that people were staying indoors, so they were not being affected,” Kalkat said.

Tiny particles, known as PM2.5 for 2.5 microns that can cause respiratory illness and in some cases, heart attacks, were elevated in Glendora on Thursday night and in Long Beach on Friday morning, according to the AQMD.

The smoke generated from “flopover” flare-ups on the steep terrain across Highway 39 from the community of Mountain Cove in north Azusa is one of the reasons the residents remained under mandatory evacuations Friday night, fire officials said. Residents from Mirador and Crystal Canyon further south were allowed back to their homes Friday, said Azusa Police Lieutenant Paul Dennis.

“Mountain Cove still has fire and rock falls. We can’t lift that mandatory evacuation at this time,” Dennis said Friday evening. The 300 or so people from the upscale housing community are the only residents under evacuation orders. At one time, nearly 4,000 people were evacuated from their homes from Glendora and Azusa.

The AQMD has not issued a smoke alert for today, but the agency will make that decision early this morning, said Sam Atwood, AQMD spokesman.

As long as the fire is burning, the effects of the particle-infused air will continue, sometimes for 48 hours after the fire is out, Cassmassi said.

People should stay indoors with air conditioning, Baker said. In vehicles, hit the “recirculate” button and do not allow outside air into the cabin, he emphasized.

The smoky air can affect healthy people, especially those who exercise outdoors, he said. Also, the elderly and children are more susceptible to dangerous health effects. Children can breathe in bad air at larger rates and often start coughing without monitoring themselves, he said.

Southland residents with asthma, or who’ve recently had bronchitis or pneumonia, are more susceptible to the harsher effects of particulates in the air, Baker said. The best advice he had was to put some distance between oneself and the brown haze.

“Make it a good reason to go stay with relatives or friends for a couple of days. It is a good excuse to get away from the local area,” Baker said.

“Even though it looks clear outside, the fire is still burning on the other side of the hills and those microscopic particles are still floating around out there,” Baker added.

Firefighters Friday were backing away from a projected full containment date of sometime Sunday. Ralph Gonzales, public information officer with the U.S. Forest Service and the joint Southern California Team 3, said that estimate was just that, an estimate.

“This is normally a four- or five-day fire,” said Marc Peebles, information officer with the fire team.

The National Weather Service has extended the red flag warning until 6 p.m. today for the mountains of Los Angeles County, which includes the San Gabriel Mountains, said Kathy Hoxsie, meteorologist from the Oxnard/L.A. Office.

“We expect a lull overnight, with winds coming up again tomorrow (Saturday) morning, she said. Hoxsie said by Sunday, a cooler onshore flow will return.

Atwood said the smoke advisories depend on the amount of fire activity and the weather. Both were still two big unknowns Friday night.